


The Shirt, the Walk, and the Match

by Redisaid



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 20:55:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2887577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redisaid/pseuds/Redisaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short take on the origin of the infamous shirt from “What Was Missing”. Also maybe a little bit of cute stuff that happened after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Shirt

She’d expected a dank, possibly smelly cave strewn with bones and not that much in the way of furniture or the other comforts of a typical home. The charming little house within was exactly the opposite of what she’d expected. Bubblegum stood in mute awe before it, staring up at the purple siding and pink curtains, wondering if the vampire had somehow managed to rip the house off of its foundations in the Candy Kingdom and drop it in the cave. It certainly would have fit in better there.

“You coming in or not, Bonnie?”

All of her decorum, all of the staunch manners that she’d practiced for so long were forgotten for a moment. Bubblegum startled at the question and nearly tripped over her own feet as she tried to take a step toward the door. “Uh, yeah…sorry,” she choked out as she recovered her balance and what was left of her dignity.

Marceline just laughed in response as she floated into her house. “Not what you were expecting?” she asked over her shoulder.

“No,” Bubblegum answered, finding the word lingering a bit too long on her lips as she did. The interior of the house was even more mystifying. There were no bloody skulls or chains or instruments of torture. The immaculately clean cottage was instead full of kitschy furnishings and decor, such that many of the trendiest inhabitants of Ooo would kill to own. An old, tiny poodle slept in a basket beside a few bass guitars. This wasn't the den of some monstrous creature. This was a home.

Marceline glided effortlessly into the kitchen. “You candy people just eat sweet stuff, right?”

Bubblegum couldn't help herself. She went over to one of the strange paintings by the end table to wonder at the mother and child pictured there, surrounded by beams of golden light. “That’s actually a common misconception,” she told the vampire as she pondered the painting. “We can eat just about anything. Foods high in glucose are merely a general preference among my people.”

Marceline stuck her head through the window between the two rooms and puzzled over that for a moment. “So, if I made some strawberry shakes you’d be down?”

“That sounds great,” Bubblegum assented. The blender began to whirl before the last syllable even left her tongue.

She’d seen it as a diplomatic opportunity. Her fellow princesses had their reservations, as did Bubblegum, but she’d accepted the queen’s invitation in hopes of forming an alliance between their kingdoms. She’d never actually seen another vampire, or even heard of one, but there had to be something to Marceline’s domain, something worth a night of diplomacy. As it was, it seemed that the Vampire Kingdom was just this big empty cave and the wonderful little house within.

Of course, she’d tried to convince the others to come along. Lumpy Space Princess had promised to show up, but Bubblegum knew she’d find some excuse to get out of it. Hotdog Princess and Slime Princess were scared to death of Marceline and had refused to join her outright.

It was a matter of maybe a minute or two before a cold cup was placed into her hands. Marceline floated above her sipping from her own shake. “That was pretty lame of LSP to bail on us. Did you like the show?”

Bubblegum had never been to a rock concert before. She’d performed in her share of whistling choir recitals and kept a candy cane minstrel at her court, but that music was not even comparable, nor was the atmosphere of the performances. The show in question took place at a dingy club in a far off corner of Ooo. All manner of creatures were crammed into all too little space. It smelled like smoke and stale beer, but no one really seemed to care. Bubblegum had been beyond nervous. Marceline’s confidence and insistence that the band was good were the only things that kept her from running out the nearest door and screaming her way into the night.

And they were good. They were so good. It was like no other music she’d heard before. Guitars screamed. She swayed along to the steady, throbbing bass. Drums crashed and symbols rang with controlled violence. She could barely hear the singer, since the crowd sung along with every word. Bubblegum found herself singing by the end of the show. She wasn't sure how, or even when she started. She didn't really know the words either, but that didn't stop her.

“I loved it!” she answered all too enthusiastically and nearly spilled her shake onto Marceline’s carpet in the process. “I've never heard anything like that before.”

Marceline cackled in her usual condescending way. There was a time when that sound would have brought a swell of rage bubbling up within the pink princess, but she understood it now. The vampire wasn't so bad. She genuinely wanted to share the things she enjoyed with her fellow monarchs. That’s why she’d invited the princesses to a girl’s night out, not to trick them or hand them off to the Ice King’s waiting claws. “I didn't think you would, honestly. I never would’ve guessed you were so hardcore, Bonnie.”

“I never would have guessed you lived in a little pink and purple cottage, Marceline,” the princess retorted.

Marceline took a long sip from her shake, or at least the red pigments within it. She swung around Bubblegum, listlessly floating over to the small collection of bass guitars on the other side of the room. “Guess we were both wrong, huh?”

Bubblegum laughed at that and shirked off the last bit of nervous tension she’d been carrying with her that night. 

The vampire queen set her shake aside on top of a stray amplifier. She plucked her favorite bass from its stand and began to pluck at it’s strings. “So you really like music, huh?”

Bubblegum wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. There was a couch she could sit on, but it didn't look all that comfortable. There were other chairs, but her feet shuffled across the floor and closer to the vampire. She found herself standing just a few feet away, watching with interest as the other woman’s long pale fingers picked out a deep melody on the strings over the body of what was once a formidable battleaxe. “I do,” the princess confessed after a moment. “Though I’m not terribly good at producing it.”

“It just takes practice,” Marceline told her. “I've had a lot of time for that. I could teach you sometime, maybe—if you’d wanna learn bass or something.”

Bubblegum’s eyes were glued to her nimble fingers. If they had looked up just then, they might have seen the faint hints of a maroon blush cross the vampire’s pale cheeks.

“Perhaps. My schedule is a little too full for music lessons right now, but I would consider it should things change in the future. The arts have never been my strong suit, but they fascinate me,” the princess told her before she peeled her gaze away from Marceline’s fingers and into the carpet.

The queen tried to gather herself. She did so in the way she knew best, by getting lost in her music. Her somewhat random plucking turned into a song. She hummed along to it, her voice nearly as deep and soothing as the bass she played.

“I don’t know why everyone seems to think you’re a monster,” Bubblegum said quietly over her humming. “You’re pretty cool, Marceline.”

The vampire smiled and stopped playing. “I sorta gave myself a bit of a bad reputation. That was a long time ago, though. I’m over that stuff now.”

Bubblegum realized it was better not to ask for more details on the subject. Marceline went back to her simple song, and the candy princess was content just to listen and sip her shake. She clapped excitedly against the cool plastic of her cup when it was over, eliciting another fanged smile from the performer.

“Do you give concerts? I think I’d like to go to one,” Bubblegum stammered out as she stopped clapping.

Marceline looked a bit surprised at that question. “Uh, sometimes. The Duke of Nuts and his kids are big fans, so I play for them at parties and junk. It’s been at least a century since I did a show like the one we went to tonight. Maybe two centuries. I dunno. I sorta lose track of time.”

“Well you should!” the pink monarch said, her free hand flying dramatically to her hip. “I insist upon it! I’ll have Peppermint Butler arrange for you to play at a venue within my kingdom. My citizens could certainly use a bit more culture.”

Marceline cackled again. “Whoa there, princess. Maybe I don’t wanna play for a bunch of gumdrops and lollipops? I don’t think they’d dig my tunes.”

“They’ll, uh, dig them. I’m certain,” Bubblegum told her, her tone suddenly dire and serious.

Marceline strummed her bass again, just once. “I’ll think about it. I really had no idea you were such a fan of hard stuff. You didn't even buy a t-shirt or a CD at the concert.”

“They were selling t-shirts? Aw glob! I didn't see that. I totally would've bought one!” Bubblegum cried.

Marceline quirked an eyebrow. Her lips pulled back as if to laugh again, but they stopped about halfway, then curled back over her fangs. “Hang out here a sec,” she commanded, and then flew up through the hole in the ceiling.

Bubblegum was left only to stare after her and the long ebony trail of her hair.

She wasn't gone for long. Marceline returned from the second story grinning triumphantly. A bit of black fabric hung from her hand. “Here,” she said as she thrust it at Bubblegum. “You can have this. It’s from last year’s tour, but I think you’ll appreciate it more than I do.”

The shirt was only slightly worn. The graphic on it—a rather gruesome depiction of two impaled marshmallows and a snake slithering between them—was very much intact. Bubblegum knew she could never be seen wearing such a thing in the Candy Kingdom, but she snatched it up all the same, beaming. “Are you sure?” she asked.

Marceline’s grin hadn't quite disappeared yet. “Totally,” she answered with a nod.

Bubblegum couldn't help herself yet again. She hugged the shirt close to her chest. “Thank you. For the show and the shirt and—well, everything. I had a lot of fun tonight.”

“Me too,” Marceline said. She stopped floating, and her boots landed gracefully on the floor, as if she was made of nothing but air. “They’re playing again next week, you know. I could get us tickets—if you wanted to go, that is. Maybe just you and me could go. LSP would probably bail again anyway, if you invited her.”

Bubblegum covered her grin with the t-shirt. It smelled like Marceline’s house—like old books and fresh berries with a hint of rust. It was a strange combination, stranger still since Bubblegum found that she really liked it. “That sounds perfect.”


	2. The Walk

It started out slowly, casually even. They went to shows together. That was it. They were friends with a similar taste in music. They might have occasionally blushed at each other when their elbows bumped in the club, but that was it. Really. Totally. They’d wave their goodbyes at the end of the night. Marceline would fly home and Bubblegum would ride off on one of her many birds or that stripey rainbow unicorn thing.

She came over once, unannounced, right in the middle of the day. Marceline had been sleeping. The pink princess wanted to borrow some music. That’s what she called it, at least. The varying media of Marceline’s collection was too much to explain otherwise. It was kind of weird, honestly, but she didn't think anything of it and handed Bonnibel a few old cassettes she’d dug up centuries ago.

“Were you in the neighborhood or something?” Marceline asked as she handed over the tapes.

Bubblegum snatched them up eagerly and scanned the strange art of their cases as she replied, “Sort of. You—I mean what you’d said about letting me borrow stuff—it was just on my mind.”

Marceline didn't exactly consider herself the emotionally mature or perceptive type, but she’d been around a long time. She knew when a friendship was teetering on ruin, walking the fence between someone never wanting to speak to her again and a relationship she wasn't sure she was ready for. That unspoken tension was something she knew well, but had never enjoyed. It took a lot for her to go to the Candy Kingdom later that night. She was already feeling a bit of stage fright. She didn't need even more twisting in her gut, but she went anyway.

A gingerbread house certainly didn't seem like a fitting venue for a rock concert, but Bubblegum did the best she could with what she had. There were posters of the bands. Marceline smirked at her own and went over to inspect it, finding that it was actually an intricate mosaic composed of tiny candies. She was made of pale nonpareils, her hair of black licorice, her axe bass of red cinnamon candies. Chocolate bats enveloped her as she played, head swung low with strands of licorice hair flying toward the crowd below.

“Evening madam,” a small peppermint said as he caught her snickering at herself. “I was told to show you to the back entrance. You are Marceline the Vampire Queen, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s me. Who’re you, little dude?” she asked, trying her best not to laugh.

The round little candy didn't seem too comfortable in his get up, or at all happy about it. Some sick person had dressed him in a little black cutoff shirt and tight little jeans with the knees torn out. He looked positively adorable. “Peppermint is what I’m called. I’m the butler of her highness, Princess Bubblegum. She has directed me to have you suitably prepared for your performance, so if you would please, your majesty?”

“Pfft, majesty? Really? Bhahaha!” Marceline replied, unable to hold in her laughter any longer.

She hardly even saw Bonnibel backstage. She was a blur of pink—running around and screaming out orders one second, gushing over the local talent she’d assembled the next. She gave Marceline a quick wave when she ran out to start the show, but ran straight off to address some issue with the lighting after she was done. The vampire was left to watch the acts from the sidelines.

First up was a group of candy rockers, all of them far too cute for their own good. They tried, that much could be said. They certainly tried to appease their ruler and her new found love for all things rock and roll, but candy people are really terrible at trying to be cool. A gumdrop can’t exactly look hardcore during an two minute drum solo, but the vampire had to give him a passing grade for effort alone.

It wasn't long before it was time for her set. Any remnant of nerves were forgotten about when she hit the stage. She was rusty, sure, but Marceline did her best to show those little sugar nuggets what real music was about. She got into a groove. She didn't even try to look for Bonnie, but she found her anyway. She was beaming up at her from the crowd, not even jumping up and down like an idiot, as she usually did at shows. They locked eyes for a moment, just as Marceline finished a song.

“Gonna slow it down here a sec,” she breathed into the microphone.

Her brain screamed at her, but her fingers had already begun to pluck out the lurid melody. Her voice hesitated, just barely, but it too followed. A love song. She hadn't sung a love song in decades, centuries—she didn't even know. Her eyes were the only part of her that seemed to be able to obey her brain. They didn't go looking for Bonnie again, at least not until the song was over. By then, she was long gone.

The crowd roared for an encore, but Marceline just waved sheepishly and showed herself back to the shadows of the wings. She hid among them, an invisible form, only noticeable from the bass that floated about her. Her head swam so much that she couldn't really think. She barely heard the other bands. Their music was a sudden discord, meshing with the echo of a throbbing heart that Marceline still excepted to hear in her chest, but did not. The only clear thought she could pick out was the one that told her not to do this to herself yet again. It was too late for that.

She welcomed the silence when it was finally over.

“Wanna get out of here?” Bonnie was staring up at her, tired but smiling.

“How can you see me?” Marceline had to ask as she became visible yet again.

The candy princess pointed to her bass and the strap the held it about her. Her pink finger followed it up to Marceline’s shoulder. “I didn't invite the Floating Sentient Bass. He doesn't look much like that anyway. If I remember correctly, he is primarily blue in color.”

“And he sucks major balls,” the vampire retorted.

“Is everything all right, Marceline? You didn't have to perform if you didn't want to, you know. Either way, the crowd loved you,” Bubblegum informed her.

Marceline tried to respond with her best casual hair flip. “I’m cool. It’s just been a while since I've been out there under the spotlight, you know? You mentioned getting out of here?”

“There’s an entrance on the other side of the street the fans haven’t found yet. We can use it to sneak past them if we hurry,” the princess offered.

Marceline had never been much for signing autographs anyway. Soon enough, she and Bubblegum had slipped out into an alley.

“Is there, like, a coffee shop or something we can go to—or a diner? Do candy people even do twenty-four hour anything?” Marceline begged as the princess scouted the exit onto a the street.

“Hmm. There’s an ice cream shop that’s open pretty late,” the princess said as she beckoned her vampire friend forward.

“Good enough. Your treat, right?”

Bonnie tried her hardest to frown over her shoulder at that, but it just turned into a grin. “I guess I owe you. What if they don’t have anything red?”

Marceline shrugged. “Then you’ll still owe me.”

The streets of the Candy Kingdom were quiet. Most of its people weren't much for any sort of nightlife. Marceline and Bubblegum were left to walk alone down the subdued colors of its streets. Well, Bubblegum was anyway.

“Why do you have to do that all the time?” she asked the vampire.

“Do what?” Marceline asked, confused.

“Float all the way up there,” Bubblegum sighed as gestured to the good three feet of air between the vampire and the ground. “Are you incapable of walking these days?”

Determined to prove that she was indeed capable, the pale woman landed gracefully upon the sugary earth and danced her way to the princess’ side. “I’m a walking master. You don’t even know what these feet can do, Bonnie.”

Bubblegum laughed at her display. “You seem like you’re feeling better.”

Marceline nodded as she lied, “I guess I just had a little freakout. It happens sometimes. No big. It was fun rocking out and all, but I don’t think I was really prepared for it, you know?”

“Sort of, but I’ll certainly accept your explanation. I’m just glad to see that you are indeed capable of typical bipedal locomotion.”

“Pssh, why?” the vampire wondered.

“So that I might do this with ease,” Bubblegum said. She snatched up Marceline’s hand with her own. It was soft, small, and warm—so warm.

“Oh…okay.”


	3. The Match

“You know, for a nerd, you’re pretty terrible at video games.”

Bubblegum glared at her. The combination of low light and the glow of hundreds of screens produced an almost eerie shine across her cheeks and crinkled nose, but it only served to make Marceline’s grin wider.

“Pfft,” she spat in her defense. “I hardly even have time to play them. I don’t exactly have a thousand years of practice anyway.”

“You don’t need to practice when you have skills, princess,” Marceline informed her, her pointed grin becoming noticeably smug as she waved her lithe fingers to emphasize her point.

Bubblegum’s glowing glare somehow found a way to make itself darker. “Fine. I’m picking the next game then.” She stormed off into the sea of machines and tinny sound.

The vampire couldn't help but cackle as she floated after her. “So what am I gonna get for beating you at this one? I mean, it’s not like I can lose—unless you find Beaker Mixer 3000 or something—but I like to have some motivation to show off my talents.”

The candy princess almost wanted to ask if Beaker Mixer 3000 was an actual game, but thought better of it. She flipped lightly on her heels, and began walking backwards through the row of machines as she offered her own challenge. “How about this? Since you’re so confident that you’ll win, why not give me some incentive instead?”

Marceline crossed her arms and tried to look serious, but her smile betrayed her. She was honestly beginning to find difficult to do anything but smile when she was around the pink girl. “You don’t have a chance of getting it, so why not? What are you gonna get if you defeat the master?” she begged as her arms made a sweeping motion over her body with the last word.

Bubblegum’s grin was almost sinister. Marceline would be lying if she said she didn't like it. “If I win, you’re taking me to the museum for our next date. The science museum.”

The queen’s eyebrow arced just slightly before she erupted into laughter. “What? Really? That’s the best you can think of? Hah! And for the record, the science museum is pretty neat. They have tons of dead bodies and creepy junk.”

Bubblegum didn't exactly expect that reaction. Still, she did her best to stay sinister. “And you have to buy me lunch,” she added clumsily, realizing that it didn't sound nearly as threatening as she wanted it to.

“And?”

“Uh—the rest is too awful to mention in public, so you’ll just have to hope you win!” Bubblegum cried. She covered the blush that was growing on her cheeks with her own cackle, and even that was awkwardly loud and insane-sounding.

“Challenge accepted,” Marceline answered "You don’t scare me, Bonnie. You’re trying really hard, and that’s adorable, but it’s just not working. Sorry.”

Amidst the maze of machines, Bubblegum settles on the one that appears the simplest. It’s the only chance she has. Instead of brightly painted designs or flashing lights, that particular cabinet’s sides were decorated with nothing but wood paneling, its face in cracked mustard yellow paint. The controls were no complex jumble of sticks and buttons, just two simple dials. It almost looked like something out of her laboratory. She smiled in spite of herself. “This one,” she said, pointing to the ancient game. Her hand tugged on the sleeve of Marceline’s shirt, pulling her down from where she was floating above the tops of the machines.

Marceline startled, then tried to act as though she didn't. She’d never seen that cabinet before. She had no idea how it worked. She didn't know every combo, every trick and cheat, but she certainly wasn't going to let Bubblegum know that. “Bleh, this old thing? Way to pick the only thing in this place that’s older than me. Does it even work?”

The princess went over to examine the simple cabinet. Its flickering screen was indeed on, though devoid of colors and fancy graphics. A dotted white line divided the screen. The players were nothing more than white rectangles, their objective a small white square. It took her a moment to process what it was meant to represent—tennis. She knew tennis. “I believe it’s still functional,” she reported.

Marceline shrugged and dug a coin out of her pocket. She handed it off to the princess. “Whatever. Prepare to meet your doom,” she threatened coolly as she took her place before one of the dials.

They both struggled at first. Marceline spun her dial with abandon, causing her little white rectangle to bounce wildly up and down. Bubblegum was more cautious, perhaps a bit too cautious. Once they got the hang of it, the match was surprisingly even. The immortal’s millennium of experience did nothing for her, and Bubblegum’s lack thereof couldn't hinder at such a simple game. A crowd gathered silently around them as they shrieked out taunts as the scored, and let feral growls escape their lips when they gave up a point. It the end, the princess thought she’d lost. The little square came flying at her far too fast, but somehow she caught it. Marceline was too busy beginning to cheer for her victory to see that she was about to lose. The ball crossed into her court and fell past her edge of the screen, uncontested.

The candy monarch took her share of victory cries, but that wasn't what she enjoyed most of all. The shock on Marceline’s face was priceless. It was honestly so hard to surprise a vampire, that she didn't get to see that face very often. She loved that face. She wanted to keep it forever, but not in a photograph—which wasn't possible anyway. She couldn't reach up and kiss a photograph and make it flush and giggle nervously into her lips.

“So when am I taking you to the museum?” Marceline asked as they made their way out of the arcade and into the summer night.

“I have some free time next week. I think. Maybe. I’ll have to check with Peppermint. Actually, I changed my mind, but I’d still totally go to the museum if you felt like taking me sometime,” Bubblegum hinted.

The vampire stopped in midair. “What? You can’t change it now that you've won. That’s no fair, Bonnie!”

Bubblegum chuckled up at her. “Since when have you cared about fair, cheater? Besides, I think you’ll like my other idea.”

“Oh yeah? Are you gonna threaten me with a trip to the music store? Ooh! Maybe an awful date in a strawberry field! How horrible!” Marceline shouted dramatically, flipping upside down and covered her face with her arm.

“Mmmno, not exactly. I was thinking…we could, uh, go back to your place.”

The only thing harder than surprising a thousand year old vampire who has seen and done and known everything there is to see and down and know is surprising that vampire twice in one night.


End file.
